JONAED

Three assumptions underpin this study. First, persons with disability (PwDs) are educationally excluded by society’s attitude barriers. Second, when broken/changed attitudes can grow educational and eventually social inclusion because, a fully inclusive society begins in a school. Third, the basis of any form of inclusion is attitude change. The study proceeded to investigate the attitude directions of primary school children towards PwDs and then determined the relative effect of bibliotherapy to change attitudes in the children. A survey and quasi-experimental (pretest posttest control group) designs were employed to investigate the two study objectives. Two thousand and eighty pupils respectively were sampled from 76,481 primary six school children in Imo state, Nigeria for the two designs. The Attitude Towards the Disabled Rating Scale (ATDRS) adapted from Ozoji 1988 ATBS (r=0.72) was used to measure the attitude directions of the children while Nwachukwu Bibliotheraphy Programme (NBP) (involving two story books: Class Bully and Magic Stone) served the experimental intervention for the study. The experimental study lasted twelve weeks in two intact schools, in urban and rural areas respectively. Descriptive and t-test statistics were engaged in data analysis. The results showed that on the average the respondents demonstrated negative attitudes towards the PwDs. The one null hypothesis was rejected affirming that NBP significant change effects on attitudes due to bibliotheraphy intervention. The implications of the study in line with the stated assumptions were pointed out. Recommendations were made to the Ministry of Education responsible for approving books for basic education to encourage authors to emphasize the portrayal of heroic roles of PwDs in their books.